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DOE OSTI2026

A Play-Based Exploration of CO 2 Storage in the Illinois Basin (Final Technical Report)

This report documents the results of "A Play-Based Exploration of CO₂ Storage in the Illinois Basin" (DE-FE0032366), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and conducted by the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in partnership with Visage Energy. The project adapted play-based exploration (PBE), a systematic basin-scale evaluation methodology from the petroleum industry, to screen areas of Illinois for commercial geologic carbon storage (GCS) in Cambro-Ordovician strata. The traditional play concept was expanded to encompass three play element groups, subsurface geologic factors, surface features, and societal factors, yielding 24 play elements with defensible suitability criteria applied through a five-tier classification scheme. An integrated geospatial database was assembled from ISGS, MGSC, MRCI, NATCARB, and public data sources, supported by significant data-improvement work including correction of legacy well locations, digitization of more than 1,300 well construction records using the DOE CATALOG team's OGRRE tool, compilation of a statewide 2D seismic database, and production of a refined fault and fold geodatabase.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Enhanced Simulation Tools for Scheduling Solar Plus Storage Power Plants

This is the final technical report for the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Solar Energy Technology's Office Balance of Systems program, Award Number 38429. This report summarizes the key outputs and findings of the project, which was focused on long-duration energy storage (LDES) and solar. In particular, one of the most significant challenges of maximizing the value of variable solar energy is the timing of charging and discharging stored energy from LDES devices. Power systems often fail to capture the benefits of LDES and can undervalue the role of storage in providing energy arbitrage, reliability support, and resiliency. This project examined those challenges and proposed alternative methodologies that better capture the value that LDES can provide.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Master Planning for Resilient Public Communities—Best Practices from U.S. Military Installations

Until recently, most planners at military installations addressed energy systems for new facilities on an individual facility basis without consideration of community-wide goals relevant to energy sources, renewables, storage, or future energy generation needs. Building retrofits of public buildings typically do not address energy needs beyond the minimum code requirements making it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve community-level targets on a building-by-building basis. Planning on the basis of cost and general reliability may also fail to deliver community-level resilience. For example, many building code requirements focus on hardening to specific threats, but in a multi-building community, only a few of these buildings may be mission-critical. Over the past two decades, the frequency and duration of regional power outages and water utility disruptions from weather, man-made events, and aging infrastructure have increased. Major disruptions of electric and thermal energy have degraded critical mission capabilities and caused significant economic impacts. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense issued guidance that each Service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) complete comprehensive energy plans for the installations that consumed 75% of total building energy. Guidance was updated in 2017 to include metrics for energy resilience, and in some cases, water. This paper describes how community level quantitative and qualitative resilience analysis and metrics have been incorporated into community energy and water planning best practices for military installations in three geographically diverse locations. It is based on research performed under the International Energy Agency’s “Energy in Buildings and Communities Program Annex 73,” focusing on development of guidelines and tools that support the planning of Net Zero Energy Resilient Public Communities as well as research performed under the Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program project EW18-D1- 5281, “Technologies Integration to Achieve Resilient, Low- Energy Military Installations.” The first case study reviews progress made on an energy and water planning study conducted at Fort Bliss, Texas. The second and third describes planning conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the Joint Region Marianas, Guam, respectively, under the updated guidance from 2017 regarding energy and water resilience. Analysis methods, key metrics, and key infrastructure and operational constraints are described, as well as technical, economic and business concepts used during the planning process.

Urban, Angela B.↗
DOE OSTI2021

ECAR-1930 BASELINE CHARACTERIZATION DATABASE VERIFICATION REPORT - NBG-18 BILLET 635-14

The purpose of this Engineering Calculations and Analysis Report is to present the data being collected in the Baseline Graphite Characterization program, which is directly tasked with supporting the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) research and development efforts on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP)/Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR). This program is populating a comprehensive database that will reflect the baseline properties of nuclear-grade graphite with regard to individual grade, billet, and position within individual billets. The physical and mechanical property information being collected will be transferred to the NGNP Data Management and Analysis System (NDMAS), and from that database will help populate handbook of property data available to member nations of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). The transfer of this data from the applicable technical lead to the dissemination databases available to other end users requires a full review of the test procedures and data collection efforts through an analysis of the multiple summary spreadsheets and values being collected. This report represents that analysis for a single billet of nuclear grade graphite (NBG-18 billet 635-14) and facilitates the release of the associated data to the NDMAS custodians.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

SULI Technical Report: WIRE (Draft)

Local climate undoubtedly affects facility maintenance requirements; however, knowledge of the link between weather and facility condition over time is grounded in the 1990s and needs to be updated. WIRE aims to quantify the relationship between climate and infrastructure by calculating climate-based service life estimates to be used in BUILDER, a program the Department of Energy (DOE) uses for facility management. Phase One of this project is a case study on window-or-wall-mounted AC units. The independent variables influencing service life are load, maintenance quality, and effective age, with load calculated from three weather variables: temperature, humidity, and solar radiation. Given sufficient data, service life can be calculated as a function of these variables via regression. WIRE is currently collecting data. Preliminary estimated service life projections as a function of load derived from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) data support the need for updated analysis on the relationship between climate and facility condition. With the groundwork laid, WIRE can generate deliverables immediately upon arrival of data. The methods used for this case study constitute a framework for deriving the relationship between weather variables and service life for other components.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

WHOLESCALE - Water & Hole Observations Leverage Effective Stress Calculations And Lessen Expenses (Final Technical Report 2020 - 2024)

The WHOLESCALE acronym stands for Water & Hole Observations Leverage Effective Stress Calculations and Lessen Expenses. The goal of the WHOLESCALE project is to simulate the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of stress in the geothermal system at San Emidio in Nevada, United States. To reach this goal, the WHOLESCALE team has developed a methodology to incorporate and interpret data from four methods of measurement into a multi-physics model that couples thermal, hydrological, and mechanical (T H-M) processes. The WHOLESCALE team has applied this methodology at the San Emidio geothermal field, located ~100 km north of Reno, Nevada in the northwestern Basin and Range province. The WHOLESCALE team includes 30 individuals working at two universities, two national laboratories, and one industry partner. Two master-degree students and five post-doctoral researchers have gained professional experience and earned partial financial support via the WHOLESCALE project. The WHOLESCALE team has taken advantage of the perturbations created by changes in pumping operations during planned shutdowns in 2016, 2021, and 2022 to infer temporal changes in the state of stress in the geothermal system at San Emidio, Nevada, U.S. The WHOLESCALE results support the working hypothesis that increasing pore-fluid pressure reduces the effective normal stress acting across fault zones. During normal operations, pumping in deep production wells decreases fluid pressures and thus increases the effective normal stresses on faults, reducing microseismicity. During planned shutdowns, the cessation of production increases pore-fluid pressure and reduces effective normal stress. The WHOLESCALE products generated during the 4-year period between 2020 and 2024 include: three articles published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific literature, two master’s theses, 20 presentations or papers at scientific conferences, and 17 data sets available on public repositories. The WHOLESCALE project has been completed in two phases that included three performance periods separated by two Go/No-go Stage Gate Reviews. Tasks were classified by data type (i.e., Geologic Structure, Borehole, Geodesy, Hydrology, Seismology, and Modeling). The first phase of the project started July 31, 2020 and included ongoing project coordination (Task 1), a project kickoff (Task 2), analysis of existing data (Task 3), development of the initial stress model & deployment design (Task 4), and Go/No-go Decision Point #1 (Task 5). Phase II began with implementing the 2022 deployment (Task 6), followed by Go/No-go Decision Point #2 (Task 7) The remainder of Phase II consisted of analyzing data collected during deployment (Task 8), calibration of the stress model on all observations (Task 9), and the Final Review (August 23, 2024) & Reporting (Task 10).

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Austin Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV [Austin SHINES]. Final Report, Version 2

The Austin SHINES project and solution is a software management platform, for an electric grid with a high penetration of dispersed photovoltaic (PV) solar generation sites, which maintains the traditional power quality and reliability associated with grid service. This project developed and deployed the platform as a Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS), engaging multiple advanced controls, to evaluate operation and optimization of a fleet of diverse DER assets, installed at several locations among Austin Energy’s customers and distribution system. The project also produced a methodology to create a replicable DERMS template, adaptable to other regions and market structures. Last, Austin SHINES aimed to demonstrate the solution’s methodology would enable the DER grid ecosystem to serve load at a technical cost (System Levelized Cost of Electricity, or System LCOE) of less than the U.S. Department of Energy SHINES program metric of $0.14/kWh, in a defined boundary, while enabling a high penetration of distributed PV. Research was categorized in 6 reports (Final Deliverables = FD) listed below, with titles and descriptions indicating which area of understanding was investigated: FD-1: System Levelized Cost of Electricity (System LCOE) Methodology The creation and use of the System LCOE to Serve Load metric that encompasses the holistic, system-level costs and benefits of all resources, and enables them to be evaluated based on their ability to support an efficient and low-cost integrated grid ecosystem. FD-2: Software Platform Product Description The creation of new DER control methodologies deployable within a utility-grade software platform that enable DER's to maximize their benefit within a grid, that is capable of serving load enabling a high penetration of distributed PV generation. FD-3: Optimal Design Methodology Optimal design methodologies for individual DER installations that enable utilities to determine the optimal combinations and sizing for individual DER sites. FD-4: Austin SHINES Ownership and Operation Models for DER System Performance A comparison of multiple DER aggregation and ownership methodologies including direct utility control, third-party aggregator, and autonomous. FD-5: Economic Modeling & Optimization A comparison of multiple DER technology mixes and configurations within the distribution system, providing insight into an optimal blend of technologies that best enable the distribution system to serve load at the lowest cost at high penetrations of solar. FD-6: Fielded Assets Deployed DER assets within the Austin Energy SHINES circuits. Austin SHINES provided an opening for state-of-the-art technology products to be deployed, providing a rich opportunity for improving how each of the products perform as stand-alone products, and in concert with other complementary products. The Austin SHINES project comprised of two key metrics for System LCOE: SystemLCOE_SHINES<$0.14/kWh Modeled ΔSystemLCOE_SHINES/ΔSystemLCOE_Base≥20% at same solar penetration The System LCOE calculation uses the costs of the utility-owned infrastructure as it exists today, the cost of the DERs that exist in the system today, and the cost of the purchase of energy from ERCOT wholesale markets over the course of the calendar year. All costs are on an annualized basis. The capital and operating costs are derived from the rate case, which produces a yearly cost. The net cost of energy and services imported to the system is integrated over the test year, as is the load served and solar penetration. The first metric was easily achieved by every scenario considered. The goal was set when the Department of Energy’s SHINES Funding Opportunity Announcement was written in 2015 and was a more difficult target at the time. Due mostly to rapidly declining costs for DERs and the significant decrease in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) energy market prices, which results in lower net cost of energy purchases, the System LCOE is well below this target for all scenarios considered. A fleet of DERs can assume different mixtures, each of which serves the load at a different LCOE. The optimal mixture of DERs serves load at the smallest System LCOE. The second metric (hereinafter %delta metric) asks that the holistic DERMS controls reduce the incremental cost above the baseline of going to a high solar penetration future by at least 20% as compared to the case of a DER deployment with no sophisticated controls (autonomous). Many comparison sets were created throughout this project. Physical technology was installed for informing utility engineering and testing several types of operational control schemes, through the DERMS. The types of operational control which were compared for valuation of the System LCOE Metric were: Holistic control = using the full suite of the DERMS platform to decide and optimize how/why the systems operate depending on weather, market, and reliability signal input. Autonomous control = a local mode at the asset site, wherein a schedule operates the asset, with visibility into performance only No control = the baseline for comparing value against the other two types of control The types of ownership control included: Direct Utility control = the utility dispatches a signal to each asset Third-Party Aggregator = a third party aggregates a fleet of assets and the utility dispatches one signal for all Autonomous = a local mode is set for operation at the asset site, wherein a schedule operates the asset, with visibility into performance only The types of control methodologies deployable within a utility-grade software platform included: Utility Peak Load Reduction = Lower transmission cost obligation Day-Ahead Energy Arbitrage = Realize economic value through price differential Real-Time Price Dispatch = Realize economic value from real-time price spikes Voltage support = Reduce losses and increase solar generation Distribution Congestion Management = Increase local grid reliability Demand Charge Reduction = Lower customer bills and realize system benefit The fielded assets deployed for the project were: Utility Scale Kingsbery Energy Storage System: 1.5 MW / 3 MWh Li-Ion battery storage Mueller Energy Storage System: 1.75 MW / 3.2 MWh Li-Ion battery storage, 7 Energy Storage Units (250 kW each) La Loma Community Solar: 2.6 MW Commercial Scale Aggregated storage installations at 3 sites, with existing solar (300+ kW): One 18 kW / 36 kWh Li-Ion battery storage Two 72 kW / 144 kWh Li-Ion battery storage Residential Scale Aggregated storage installations: -Six stationary battery storage systems (10 kWh each) at homes with existing solar -One Electric Vehicle installed as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Utility-Controlled Solar via Smart Inverters at 12 homes Autonomously-Controlled Smart Inverters at 6 homes Over the course of the project, Austin SHINES undertook installing more than 3 MW of distributed battery energy storage, smart PV inverters, a DER control platform, and other enabling technologies utilizing customer and utility locations and aggregation models. All of these resources were to be integrated and optimized at the utility level. DER assets and control methodologies were designed to achieve a credible pathway to a System LCOE for energy delivered to load of $0.14//kWh or less by 2020, while maximizing distributed solar generation and maintaining acceptable standards of power quality. The project also established a template for other regions to follow, to maximize the adoption of distributed solar PV in support of an economic and efficient grid. In total, the Austin SHINES project added value to the DER subject area in each layer of integration. From utility, to commercial to residential scales, the sheer hierarchy of communication and coordination was a significant accomplishment in addition to learnings from what these communications revealed was unique to each. Economically, the most effective method demonstrated was the criticality of planning phases. Contingencies and multiple projection scenarios helped guide the project to deploy optimal design as close as feasible, in real world conditions. The project and reports will serve public benefit by outlining specific areas of DER strategy and installation where many stakeholders and needs can be addressed with improved efficiency. Overall, communities and utilities should use the results to guide the increasing options available for powering the grid with DER, renewables, and carbon considerate energy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Services Interface: Requirements Document

This energy services interface (ESI) requirements document represents a process step in the path for creating an ESI specification, which will describe the technical characteristics of an ESI. This document outlines the concepts that need to be covered in the ESI specification, such as principal functions of the ESI, grid services communicated through the ESI, and the ESI lifecycle. It provides context for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) to engage industry participants in the development of the ESI specification. To do this, it describes the desired contents of the ESI specification and provides examples of the type of material that needs to be included in it. The purpose of the ESI specification is to define the requirements that are to be addressed in information and communications technology (ICT) interface standards for enabling the integration of a facility containing responsive distributed energy resources (DER facility) to an electric system consistent with the fundamental ESI principles. In this context, a DER facility may consist of a single DER with a communicating controller or may be as complex as a microgrid campus with several buildings and many DERs. The ESI specification is not a technical interface standard, but the requirements in the specification can be used to check that existing, augmented, or new interface standards meet the interoperability requirements of the ESI concept, which is explained further in this document. In this way, the ESI specification can be used to guide standards advancement work in multiple standards development organizations. To explain the scope of the ESI specification, this ESI requirements document provides examples of situations (or illustrative applications) for using an ESI to coordinate DER flexibility for grid operations. These examples originate from foundational work for describing common grid-DER service agreements that are anticipated to be supported using this interface.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Transformative Technology for FLASH Radiation Therapy: A Snowmass 2021 White Paper

Conventional cancer therapies include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and, more recently, immunotherapy. These modalities are often combined to improve the therapeutic index. The general concept of radiation therapy is to increase the therapeutic index by creating a physical dose differential between tumors and normal tissues through precision dose targeting, image guidance, and high radiation beams that deliver radiation dose with high conformality, e.g., protons and ions. However, treatment and cure are still limited by normal tissue radiation toxicity, with many patients experiencing acute and long-term side effects. Recently, however, a fundamentally different paradigm for increasing the therapeutic index of radiation therapy has emerged, supported by preclinical research, and based on the FLASH radiation effect. FLASH radiation therapy (FLASH-RT) is an ultra-high dose-rate delivery of a therapeutic radiation dose within a fraction of a second. Experimental studies have shown that normal tissues seem to be universally spared at these high dose rates, whereas tumors are not. The dose delivery conditions are not yet fully characterized. Still, it is currently estimated that large doses of 10 Gy or more delivered in 200 ms or less produce normal tissue sparing effects yet effectively kill tumor cells. There is a great opportunity, but also many technical challenges, for the accelerator community to create the required dose rates with novel and compact accelerators to ensure the safe delivery of FLASH radiation beams.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Physics of the Aurora: Laboratory Measurements of Electron Acceleration by Inertial Alfven Waves (Final Technical Report)

The physics of the aurora is one of the foremost unsolved problems of space physics. The mechanisms responsible for accelerating electrons that precipitate onto the ionosphere are not fully understood. For more than three decades, particle interactions with Alfven waves have been proposed as a possible means for accelerating electrons and generating auroras. Due to the limitations of spacecraft conjunction studies and other multi-spacecraft approaches, it is unlikely that it will ever be possible, through spacecraft observations alone, to confirm definitively the proposed electron acceleration mechanism by making simultaneous measurements of both the accelerated electrons and the inertial Alfven wave responsible for the acceleration. Here, we show laboratory measurements of the resonant transfer of energy from Alfven waves to electrons under conditions relevant to the auroral zone. Experiments are performed by launching Alfven waves and simultaneously recording the electron velocity distribution. Numerical simulations and analytical theory support that the measured energy transfer process produces accelerated electrons capable of reaching auroral energies. The experiments, theory, and simulations demonstrate a clear causal relationship between Alfven waves and accelerated electrons that directly cause auroras.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Case Study of Integrating High-Temperature Heat Pump with LiBr-H2O Absorption Chiller for Data Center Liquid Cooling

Data centers (DCs) are physical infrastructures that support artificial intelligence workloads. The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is putting substantial pressure on the US power grid. Most of electricity consumed by IT equipment, accounting for 50%-60% of total DC power, ultimately becomes waste heat. This heat is dissipated by DC’s cooling facilities, accounting for an additional 30%-40% of total DC power. Recovering and repurposing this waste heat offers a significant opportunity to enhance energy efficiency and reduce operating costs of DCs. One potential pathway is converting heat to cold using thermal-driven absorption chillers, therefore, reducing the power consumption in DC cooling facilities. Existing studies mainly demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of repurposing DC’s waste heat for cooling applications but provide limited technical details on how to integrate the thermal-driven absorption chillers with DC cooling systems. In addition, the low-grade waste heat available from DCs must be upgraded to higher temperatures suitable for absorption chillers. This paper presents a case study on integrating high-temperature heat pumps with a LiBr-H2O absorption chiller to use DC waste heat for cooling. A thermodynamic model of single-effect, LiBr-H2O absorption chiller and an empirical model of high-temperature heat pumps were built. The case study considers ASHRAE W17 liquid-cooled DC, with facility service water supplied at 17.0℃ and returned at 25.3℃. The thermal behaviors of absorption chiller components were predicted for the generation temperature ranging from 75.0℃ to 115.0℃. Based on the available waste heat in the integrated system, two waste heat recovery strategies were evaluated: a facility service water-based strategy and cooling water-based strategy. Results indicated that the cooling water-based strategy achieves higher Coefficient of Performance (COPs) than the facility service water-based strategy. The relatively low cooling COPs of single-effect LiBr-H2O absorption chillers could be offset by high heating COP of high temperature heat pumps. The maximum cooling COP of absorption chiller and the overall COP of integrated systems occur at lower generation temperatures, but these conditions also yield lower cooling capacities. In practice, system operation should balance the trade-off between the COP and cooling capacity

Wang, Pengtao [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000214713429)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Key Goals and Innovations Needed for a U.S. Compact Fusion Pilot (Final Technical Report)

Fusion energy offers the prospect of addressing the nation's energy needs and contributing to the transition to a low-carbon emission electrical generation infrastructure. Technology and research results from U.S. investments in the major fusion burning plasma experiment known as ITER, coupled with a strong foundation of research funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), position the United States to begin planning for its first fusion pilot plant. Strong interest from the private sector is an additional motivating factor, as the process of decarbonizing and modernizing the nation's electric infrastructure accelerates and companies seek to lead the way. At the request of DOE, Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid builds upon the work of the 2019 report Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research to identify the key goals and innovations - independent of confinement concept - that are needed to support the development of a U.S. fusion pilot plant that can serve as a model for producing electricity at the lowest possible capital cost.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

DECOVALEX-2019 (Task B Final Report)

The DECOVALEX Project is an on-going international research collaboration, established in 1992, to advance the understanding and modeling of coupled Thermal (T), Hydrological (H), Mechanical (M) and Chemical (C) processes in geological in geological systems. DECOVALEX was initially motivated by the recognition that prediction of these coupled effects is an essential part of the performance and safety assessment of geologic disposal systems for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. This document is the final report of Task B which was proposed and coordinated by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), presenting the technical definitions of the problems studied, approaches applied, achievements made and outstanding issues for future research. Task B focused mainly on modelling of fault activation experiments (FS experiment) recently performed at the Mont Terri underground research laboratory, Switzerland. The FS experiment explores the coupling between fault reactivation in a clay host rock and the potential-enhanced fluid displacement through a previously low-permeability formation. Based on this experiment, the DECOVALEX-2019 Task B addresses how the change in permeability induced by the fault activation and the resulting fluid flow within the fault can be simulated including the dependence on its mechanical behavior. This will support the understanding of the processes during fault activation itself and it can help to determine consequences for contaminant transport due to potentially created permeable flow paths in otherwise low permeability argillaceous rocks.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Shielding the Quantum Realm: Technical Considerations for Maintaining a Stable and Secure Radio Frequency Environment for Quantum Research

Advancements in quantum technology, which include quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum communications, and associated research, continue to revolutionize various fields of study by solving challenging problems deemed too difficult or more efficient than those used for classical computers. However, as these systems become ever so complex, it is critical to secure their electromagnetic operational environments and the associated impact on quantum systems and infrastructure. The goal of this synopsis is to bring attention to the susceptibility of quantum technology facilities to potential issues related to the radio frequency (RF) environment within the broader electromagnetic context. A framework is proposed for identifying, mitigating, monitoring, and auditing these often complex operational environments. By establishing best practices in the consideration and evaluation of these criteria, one can enhance the operational integrity, resilience, and security of quantum technology systems and facilities, thereby supporting their continued development and application in research and industry.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development of Real-Time, In-pile Creep Test Rigs for Characterizing the Structural Materials of Nuclear Components

New and improved materials are being considered for supporting both existing and next-generation nuclear reactors. Reactor materials can significantly degrade with time, thus limiting or altering their properties in harsh reactor environments. To accurately understand such material degradation, real-time data obtained under prototypic irradiation conditions are required. In particular, understanding the creep behavior of materials exposed to irradiation and elevated temperatures is essential for safety concern evaluations. To provide these capabilities, Idaho National Laboratory (INL)’s High Temperature Test Laboratory (HTTL) developed several instrumented test rigs for obtaining real-time data from specimens in well-controlled pressurized-water reactor (PWR) coolant conditions at the Materials Test Reactor. This technical report focuses on INL’s efforts to evaluate and enhance the former creep test rig prototype that relied on linear variable differential transformers in laboratory settings. Specifically, the test rig can detect changes in the length of creep specimens, which is useful for measuring thermal expansion and creep deformation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hydrogen Storage System Cost Analysis (2017-2021) (Final Report)

This final technical report summarizes hydrogen storage system cost analysis results from 2017-2021. Results include onboard hydrogen storage system costs for light-duty vehicles, medium-duty vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, class 8 long haul trucks, and passenger buses. Multiple storage systems are included, primarily focusing on compressed and cryo-compressed hydrogen in Type 3 and Type 4 storage systems. Additional analysis includes large-scale gaseous and liquid hydrogen storage at refueling stations in tube trailers and Dewars; advanced materials-based storage systems such as metal organic frameworks and metal hydrides; and a baseline setting analysis of compressed natural gas storage systems in support of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Initiative (IACMI). Analyses were primarily conducted using a Design for Manufacture and Assembly ® methodology, which is a bottom-up process-based approach to estimating factory costs. Multiple annual production rates are reported to project high-volume costs relevant to mature markets.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Summary of Savannah River Site FY23 Salt Waste Qualification Data

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) analyzed samples from Savannah River Site (SRS) Waste Tanks 41H and 21H to support qualification of Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) Waste Batches 8 and 9 for processing (the FY23 Salt Batch Qualification samples). These Tanks (i.e. 41H and 21H) are blend tanks for feed to SWPF. None of the samples displayed any unusual or unexpected characteristics such as large amounts of solids, floating solids, or unusual color. Characterization of these samples confirmed similar chemical composition and characteristics to previous salt waste batches. The results for Batches 8 and 9 were provided by SRNL to Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), the Liquid Waste Operations subcontractor at SRS, as External Sample Results (Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)) Reports. Additionally, a separate technical memo was issued by SRNL to report re-test data for Batch 8 for Cs-137 for filtered samples only which were run at the request of SWPF. For Batch 9, a set of samples was also analyzed in parallel by the SWPF-Analytical Laboratory (SWPF-AL). The SWPF-AL data is included herein for comparison with the SRNL data where applicable. The analytical results (both rapid, typically 4 weeks, and long term, typically 8 weeks) for Batches 8 and 9 are now summarized and discussed in this technical report.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2026

MOD-Amp System Design Spring: Spring 2026 – Georgetown University, SYSM–5620

High-energy lasers (HELs) play an important role in both national defense and scientific research. In defense applications, HELs are used for target detection, tracking, and engagement. In research environments, they support studies of extreme physical conditions relevant to fusion energy and plasma science. These systems depend on the amplification of light through stimulated emission of radiation, allowing optical energy to be increased to the levels required for operation. This amplification occurs when light passes through an energized gain medium that receives energy from an external optical or electrical source. To achieve the desired output, laser systems often use multiple amplification stages, including high-gain preamplifiers and lower-gain power or booster amplifiers. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and other national laboratories, many large-aperture laser amplifier systems are aging and rely on system-specific hardware, obsolete technologies, and incomplete documentation. These legacy systems create challenges for maintenance, supportability, and long-term operation. Their lack of standardization also increases the difficulty of sustaining reliable performance over time. As this infrastructure continues to age, the likelihood of unplanned downtime grows, which can negatively affect both national security missions and scientific research programs that depend on dependable HEL capabilities. The purpose of this document is to demonstrate the application of systems engineering fundamentals and design thinking through the development of a laser amplifier case study. The proposed system concept is intended as an academic exercise and not as a finalized engineering design. As a result, the development presented in this document is incomplete and may contain technical assumptions or errors that would require further investigation before any real-world implementation.

42 ENGINEERING↗